News: 2016 Focus RS Production

Hot & Ready

With production started, the Focus RS slides into North America this spring

By Steve Turner
Photos courtesy of Ford Motor Company

Those pining away for the arrival of the Focus RS have reason to rejoice. The first production Focus RS models are rolling off the production line in Saarlouis, Germany. While our friends in Europe will obviously get the first chance to own these all-wheel-drive hot hatches, the cars are set to arrive in North American this spring.

The first production Focus RS already rolled off the line in Saarlouis, Germany. Ford Performance’s hottest hatch is slated to arrive in North America this spring.

“This will be a truly remarkable year for Ford performance cars, with unprecedented performance capability, as well as sophisticated powertrain and chassis technologies including the new Ford Performance All Wheel Drive system for our Focus RS,” Joe Bakaj, vice president, Product Development, Ford of Europe, said.

Since ordering opened up last September more than 3,100 Focus RS have been ordered in Europe and over 250,000 people have configured cars on the Focus RS build and price websites.

Packed with technology and performance, the new Focus RS looks to extend Ford’s performance-car sales growth in Europe and North America.

In fact, Ford Performance is hot, with the sales of the Focus ST increasing 9 percent and the Fiesta ST by 4 percent last year in the States. In Europe, Ford plans to answer the increasing demand for go-fast rides, by producing 41,000 performance cars in 2016, which is a big increase from the 29,000 units the company produced in 2015. This growth is in response to European performance-car sales increases of 40 percent in 2015 and 62 percent in 2014.

That sort of steady growth is attributable to the great performance cars that the Blue Oval is creating these days, and that doesn’t look to slow down this year. The new Focus RS not only sports 350 horsepower and 350 lb-ft of torque, but it is programmed with a number of Driving Modes, including the highly touted Drift Mode.

Here you can see former Top Gear Stig, Ben Collins, demonstrate how those modes work…

Pretty cool, huh? We can’t wait to get behind the wheel of the new RS, and if you want to see the various options and pricing, you can visit the car’s website right here.